#CarThief

In the old days, as in just a few years ago, a car thief might not be brazen enough to nab a ride in the middle of the day or from a busy parking lot, but things are different today. Now, we’re seeing massive gangs of thieves raiding dealerships and making off with several high-dollar models at a time. Fox 2 reported that Police in Flint, Michigan, rounded up more than two dozen people earlier this week for their roles in a vast car theft at a local dealer.

The joke was that the little Honda was so old and undesirable that it would take a ten dollar bill on the dash and the key in the ignition to attract a thief. With 300K miles on the clock, the little car was old and tired, but my sister Lee and her husband Dave aren’t the kind of people who replace their cars very often. The Chevy Chevette they bought new in 1981 lasted ten long years under their care so the little Civic, purchased used in 1991 from one of my father’s workmates, was on target to last forever. Other cars came and went in the driveways of the other houses up and down the street, but in their driveway the Civic endured, a fixture of solidity and reliability in an ever changing world. And then one day, it was gone.

“How do I avoid car theft?”headlines a UK website. The felonious misappropriation of automobiles is a menace, and everybody has his or her solution. Police departments use bait cars . Murilee uses secret kill switches, fabricated from “a spring-type clothespin ziptied into the underdash wiring harness, with electrical contacts in the jaws.” And what do they recommend across the pond to thwart a thief? You either put a stuffed animals in your car. Or you buy a Ford Ka3.

The Ka3 is burglary-proof, says the site.